Raise land limit for loan waiver, localise cut-off date: Rahul

Fri, Mar 14 10:49 AM

Congress MP and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi has suggested that the Centre, while implementing the Rs 60,000-crore farm loan waiver, should consider making the land ceiling variable and localising cut-off dates instead of the designated March 31, 2007.

Participating in discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Rahul said the current ceiling of two hectares for eligible farmers did not take into account the productivity of land and excluded deserving farmers in poorly irrigated areas. "Perhaps, we could consider making the land ceiling variable based upon land productivity," he said, while referring to dry land areas like Vidarbha region, which have witnessed a high number of farmer suicides.

Rahul said, "A single cut-off date (of March 31, 2007) unfairly penalises farmers in these regions, and it would help if localised cut-off dates were considered, as the given cropping cycles in some of the country, a bulk of loans would have been taken after the proposed cut-off date." Gandhi's speech invited applause from treasury benches every now and then.

Touching upon issues relating to accountability and transparency, Rahul said Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) brought the voice of the poorest Indian into decisions shaping their lives. "I urge the Finance Minister to place PRIs at the centre of programme implementation and create incentives for states to do the same," he said.

Claiming that he, along with some colleagues, had conducted an evaluation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in some constituencies and high-performing areas, Gandhi suggested to the Minister that a host of Government programmes would be better implemented if funds transfers were linked to achieving Right to Information (RTI) and social audit objectives.

He said the allocation of Rs 34,400 crore to education will allow for two lakh more teachers and five lakh more classrooms and would allow for programmes like mid-day meals, means-based scholarships and schools for girls. "The UPA Government has given the nation an education budget three-and-a-half times what it had inherited," he said.

Illustrating why it was crucial to connect the two Indias, Rahul said: "On one hand, we have thousands of young Indians looking for jobs. On the other, we have a galloping industry with massive manpower demand. But we have invested too little in developing the skills of our youth. This renders them unqualified to do jobs that our industries require." He added: "Indian enterprise will realise its full potential not by distancing itself from the poor but by fully connecting with their aspirations."

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